Method and means for loading produce containers and the like for shipment



Sept. 12, 1961 W. B. CRANE METHOD AND MEANS FOR LOADING PRODUCE CONTAINERS AND THE LIKE FOR SHIPMENT Filed Aug. 14, 1959 INVENTOR. M1. 704/ 5. Cfl/V BZZfW nited States Patent. v

METHOD AND MEANS FOR LOADING PRODUCE CGNTAINERS AND THE LIKE FOR SHIPMENT Walton B. Crane, South Pasadena, (Ialif., assignor to Allied Plastics Company, Los Angeles, Calif., a corporation of California Filed Aug. 14, 1959, Ser. No. 833,760 2 Claims. (Cl. 105-369) This invention deals generally with the shipment of produce boxes and the like by wheeled van and particularly with an improved method and means for loading the boxes in the van.

The invention is primarily intended for use in connection with the shipment of one particular type of produce box by railway van, or freight car. It will become readily apparent as the description proceeds, however, that the problems which the present loading method and means are designed to overcome may be encountered in the shipment of other types of boxes by wheeled vans other than railway freight cars and, therefore, that the present invention may be applied to these other modes of shipment as well. Accordingly, the invention should not be thought of as limited to the shipment of produce boxes by freight cars, as disclosed herein for illustrative pur poses.

The produce boxes with which the present invention is primarily concerned comprise, briefly, relatively flat, rectangular structures which are designed to hold various kinds of produce and to be stacked one on top of the other during storage and shipment. For convenience, these boxes are handled in stacked pairs. To this end, the lower box in each pair is provided with a pair of wire couplers which project above the upper edges of the opposite end walls of the box and engage between double panels of the end walls of the upper box of the. pair in such a way as to interconnectthe upper and lower boxes against relative lateral movement. .These couplers project slightly above the upper edges of the end walls of the upper box so that when one pair of stacked boxes is placed on top of another, the projecting ends of the couplers engage between the double panels of the lower box of the upper pair of boxes to interlock the several stacked pairs of boxes against relative lateral shifting.

These produce boxes are commonly loaded for shipment in a railway freight van or car by stacking the pairs of stacked boxes, one on top of the other, in a plurality of vertical stacks. These stacks are arranged in rows of stacks which extend lengthwise and crosswise of the van. Railway freight vans, of "course, have center loading and unloading doors so that theboxes are loaded from the ends toward the center of the van. Generally, in a fully loaded freight van, a space is left between the two center crosswise rows of boxes. Some type of expander means is placed in this space and then expanded to force the stacks of containers at opposite sides of the expander means toward the opposite-ends" of the'van. This, of course, tends to force adjacent stacks of boxes into tight contact and thereby close any clearance spaces which exist between adjacent stacks.

Frequently, the produce boxes and the produce therein are damaged during shipment owing to the fact that with the conventional method of loading, described above, the boxes at the ends of the car are prone to sawtooth. This means that the boxes in one stack shift to a position wherein one of their ends rests on the top of the boxes in an adjacent stack.

This sawtoothing occurs as follows: Initially, the stacks of produce boxes are tightly arranged in the railway van by virtue of the fact that they are initially closely stacked in the van and subsequently urged into even more intimate contact by the center expander. During ice Patented Sept.

transit, however, the van is frequently humped and thereby subjected to a series of longitudinally acting impacts. During the first hump, there is a tendency for the stacks of produce boxes to shift toward one end of the van, depending on the direction of the hump. This produces a space between the stacks at the other end of the van and the adjacent and wall of the van body. If the next hump is in the opposite direction, the stacks of boxes tend to shift toward said other end of the van, thereby leaving a space at the first-mentioned end of the van. By the time the van reaches the right of way, it may have been humped several times in this way so that a space will exist between the stacks of boxes at one end of the van and the adjacent end wall of the van body. As the van moves along the right of way, it is subjected to road shocks which are transmitted to the stacked boxes within the van, and especially to those directly over the front and rear wheels of the van. The resultant vibration of the stacked boxes results in relative lateral shifting of those boxes at the end of the van at which the aforementioned spacing exists. This relative lateral shifting of the boxes, in turn, creates a looseness between adjacent stacks which gradually migrates toward the center of the van and causes one stack of boxes to sawtooth on another stack, in the manner previously mentioned. 7

A general object of the present invention is to provide a method and means for loading freight vans in such a way as to avoid the above-noted problem.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide a method and means for loading stacked produce boxes and the like on freight vans, such as railroad freight cars, wherein the stacks of boxes are confined between relatively massive movable bulkhead means located at opposite ends of the van and slidable lengtl wise of the latter in such a way that the intermediate stacks of boxes are prevented from sawtoothing.

Other objects, advantages and features of the invention will become readily apparent as the description proceeds.

The invention will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description thereof taken in connection with the annexed drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal section through a railroad freight car loaded in accordance with the invention;

FIG. la is a view looking in the direction of arrow 1a in FIG. 1;

FIG. 2 is a view, on reduced scale, illustrating, in serni- "schematic fashion, the car in its initial tightly packed condition; and

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 showing the car after humping.

Inthese drawings, the numeral It) denotes a standard refrigerated railroad freight car or van of the type commonly used to transport produce from one point to another. This car comprises, in the usual way, a thermally insulated body 12 which is supported on front and rear trucks or wheels 14 and 16. Access to the van interior for unloading and loading purposes is through a pair of center doors 18 at opposite sides of the body 12.

The van has a fiat interior floor 20 to support the produce boxes 22 to be shipped. Located at opposite ends of the car are spaces 24 and 26 to hold quantities of chopped ice 28 for cooling the produce within the boxes 22. The ice spaces 24 and 26 are separated from the main loading space 30 of the van by means of bulkheads 32. These bulkheads have grills 34 to permit circulation of the air between the ice spaces and the storage space.

As shown in the drawings, the produce boxes 22 are placed in a series of vertical stacks 35 arranged side by side in rows of stacks extending lengthwise and crosswise of the van. These boxes may be of the well-known type. preliminarily described, which have wire couplers (not shown) that prevent relative lateral shifting of the boxes in each stack and facilitate handling of the boxes in stacked pairs. It will become obvious as the description proceeds, however, that the invention is not limited to use with boxes of this type.

Since the doors 13 are located at the center of the van, the latter is loaded from the ends toward the center; that is, the boxes 22. are first stacked against the bulkheads 32 and then in additional stacks toward the center of the van. Owing to slightly varying dimensions of the boxes, the latter cannot generally be loaded in such a way as to completely fill the van in the fore and aft direction. For this reason, an expander 36 of some type is commonly placed between adjacent transverse rows of stacked containers at the center of the car to occupy the space left by the boxes. This expander embodies some means, such as cross braces 36a that may be wedged in position, for expanding the expander to close up the gaps which exist between adjacent stacks of boxes on opposite sides of the expander. This expander is free to move lengthwise of the van.

initially, therefore, the boxes 22 are tightly packed in the van, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. As preliminarily discussed, however, during humping of the van in the freight yards, the stacks of boxes are generally shifted first toward one end of the van and then toward the other end in such a way that when the van eventually reaches the right of Way, a space will exist between the transverse row of stacked boxes at one end of the van and the adjacent bulkhead 32, as illustrated at 38 in FIG. 3. As discussed beforc, with the conventional manner of loading, this looseness allows the adjacent boxes to sawtooth to such an extent that in many cases, the boxes, and produce therein, are generally damaged upon arrival at their destination.

In accordance with the present invention, this problem is avoided by providing, at each end of the van, a relatively massive bulkhead means which is free to slide lengthwise of the van. One way in which this movable bulkhead means may be conveniently provided is by joining several stacks of containers at each end of the van. In the drawings, this is accomplished by means of binding straps 40 which are tightly wrapped about the end stacks of boxes 22, as shown. These bound stacks of boxes, therefore, form bulkhead means 42 which are relatively massive with respect to the individual stacks of boxes and between which the remaining stacks of boxes are confined. These bulkhead means are slidable lengthwise of the van.

It has been found that when a van, loaded as described above, is humped in either direction, the combined effect of the resulting impact and. the momentum acquired by the bulkhead means 42 during movement of the van just prior to the hump causes the rear bulkhead means to slide forwardly in the van (FIG. 3) with suflicient force to close up any gaps which exist between the transverse rows of stacked boxes. After the hump, of course, a gap will exist between the trailing bulkhead means 42 and the adjacent bulkhead 32 of the van.

When the van reaches the right of way, therefore, a space 38 will exist between one of the bulkhead means 42 and the adjacent van bulkhead 32 while the intervening stacks of boxes will be tightly confined between the two movable bulkheads 42. The movable bulkhead means will be observed to be located over the front and rear wheels of the van. Obviously, the road shock and vibration occurring during travel of the van along the right of way cannot produce any separation or sawtoothing of the bound boxes forming the bulkhead means. It has been further found by using movable bulkhead means of suflicient mass, the latter are not prone to shifting under the action of the shock and vibration normally encountered during travel of the van along the right of way. As a result, the intervening unattached stacks 35 of boxes remain tightly packed between. the movable bulkhead means so that a sawtoothing action cannot occur.

It will be apparent, therefore, that the invention hereinbefore described and illustrated in the attached drawings is fully capable of attaining the objects and advantages preliminarily set forth.

What is claimed is:

l. The method of loading a plurality of boxes for shipment in a freight van, comprising the steps of'stacking said boxes on the floor of said van in a series of vertical stacks which are arranged side by sidein rows extendinglengthwise and crosswise of the van, binding together all of the stacks in a plurality of the crosswise rows at each end of the van only to form at the ends of the van relatively massive, freely slidable bulkhead means, there being a plurality of unbound stacks between said bulkhead means, and said bulkhead means being freely slidable lengthwise of the van to compact said unbound stacks in response to relatively abrupt acceleration and deceleration forces on the van.

2. A loaded freight van comprising a van body including a relatively flat floor, a plurality of boxes supported on said floor in a series of vertical stacks arranged side by side in rows which extend lengthwise and crosswise of the van, means binding together all of the stacks in a plurality of said crosswise rows at each end of the van only to form at the ends of the van relatively massive, freely slidable bulkhead means, there being a plurality of unbound stacks between said bulkhead means, and said bulkhead means being slidable lengthwise of the van to com pact said unbound stacks in response to relatively abrupt acceleration and deceleration forces on the van.

References Cited in the file of this patent 

